Strava

[askew]

The Mad Monk said:

Sorry about the bump.

Every time I open the Strava site on my PC I get two suggested friends, follow and request to follow. How do I remove them?

Should be the little 'X' you get when you hover over them…

[The Mad Monk]

askew said:

The Mad Monk said:

Sorry about the bump.

Every time I open the Strava site on my PC I get two suggested friends, follow and request to follow. How do I remove them?

Should be the little 'X' you get when you hover over them…

Thank you!

It worked!

[askew]

Give it a couple of weeks and I'm sure they'll be back again >:{

[MiseryStreak]

So I was just about to treat myself to Premium (actually I was going to get 60 days for free as just bought a silver British cycling membership), and they have renamed it Summit and made it all silly. Now there are three separate packages for £1.58 a month each, or £4.00 a month for all three.

https://www.strava.com/summit/join?package_ids=4

My main motivation to upgrade was for live segments and the analytics, so the analysis pack would be the one for me, but then there’s a few bits from the other ones I would have liked but not that fussed about.

I’m not sure if the free trials will work with Summit either.

Is anyone else about to sign up? What are you going for?

[jesusbuiltmycar]

I suspect the free trial will give you all 3 summit packs.

I started a two month free trial just before they changed it and now have all 3 packs. IMHO you don’t really get a lot with premium over a free account; if you use a Garmin, the analytics for heart rate & power is available via the Connect app and IMHO live segments are annoying so I simply disabled them.

I am not sure what the point is in beacon/safety since my Garmin already has an emergency function and my family can track/locate me via my phone’s ‘Find Freinds’ app.

I am very surprised that they have come up with a way of splitting the premium extras into 3 packs, when the trial ends I won’t be upgrading to any of the summit packs.

Edited by jesusbuiltmycar on Tuesday 7th August 06:24

[lufbramatt]

I know the estimated power on a segment is not exactly accurate but I often see it being in the same ballpark at least as guys with power meters. Did a segment on Saturday where I got 2nd (I used to go running with the guy who has the KOM ). a short sharp climb. There is a guy who did the same time that has a power meter that reckons 647w, but it's estimating mine at 143w! I weigh 78kg so not exactly a lightweight.

https://www.strava.com/segments/5547481?filter=ove...



can you get Strava to recalc the numbers? I know it's only a bit of fun but it seems odd to me.

[loudlashadjuster]

lufbramatt said:

can you get Strava to recalc the numbers? I know it's only a bit of fun but it seems odd to me.

His looks to be the outlier though. Very short segment, what is it, 300m? Not really possible to ascribe much to the numbers in 30 or 40 seconds.

Discounting power meter wobbles, I doubt he weighs the 120 kg (or whatever) it would need get a figure like that, but I suppose he could easily have spun lightly up the first 50-100m then mashed it to the end to get a very high average.

[okgo]

loudlashadjuster said:

His looks to be the outlier though. Very short segment, what is it, 300m? Not really possible to ascribe much to the numbers in 30 or 40 seconds.

Discounting power meter wobbles, I doubt he weighs the 120 kg (or whatever) it would need get a figure like that, but I suppose he could easily have spun lightly up the first 50-100m then mashed it to the end to get a very high average.

Ian is pretty tiny, certainly around 70kg.

[PulsatingStar]

loudlashadjuster said:

His looks to be the outlier though. Very short segment, what is it, 300m? Not really possible to ascribe much to the numbers in 30 or 40 seconds.

His is the only one with a power meter rather than estimated though. You have to go down to 40th or something to find the next power meter times, over a minute at 350ish. Sounds fine. Stravas power estimates actually come out fairly good over long distances but I guess this is showing up the weakness of estimations.

[BenGismo]

The rider size isnt really the issue in this case.....

Look at the elevation data you recorded and you climbed 3ft during this entire segment according to your strava track where as everyone else is using the standard elevation data which rises Waaay more than that.

Basically your wahoo recorded poor elevation data during that time - its pretty much a straight line


On strava on a pc click on the ride and underneath your elevation figure there is a "Elevation ?" link which can be used to correct your elevation data. Your elevation data gets replaced by topological data for the area.

You can then refresh/recalculate your power on the segment and get something more realistic.

Edited by BenGismo on Monday 1st October 13:43

[lufbramatt]

Ahh yes I think I see the issue- its a bad GPS trace that has offset my position to the east, which puts me on the top of the valley rather than on the side.

[bristolbaron]

• apologies for the non cycling post!*

I’ve recently signed up to Strava as I’ve started C25K. I’ve tried to stay as anonymous as possible as I’m not particularly keen in sharing my 60 second runs.

Despite not giving access to contacts/Facebook/any other third party apps, somehow it’s now found and suggested four of my actual friends to follow! How does it know I know these people? Would I also be coming up as a suggestion for them? Or others?

I’m more annoyed that it’s somehow linking my data than the actual suggestions itself. It would be good to know what the link is so I can do something about it. Otherwise I’ll delete the account and go with something else - perhaps runkeeper?

[numtumfutunch]

bristolbaron said:

*apologies for the non cycling post!*

I’ve recently signed up to Strava as I’ve started C25K. I’ve tried to stay as anonymous as possible as I’m not particularly keen in sharing my 60 second runs.

Despite not giving access to contacts/Facebook/any other third party apps, somehow it’s now found and suggested four of my actual friends to follow! How does it know I know these people? Would I also be coming up as a suggestion for them? Or others?

I’m more annoyed that it’s somehow linking my data than the actual suggestions itself. It would be good to know what the link is so I can do something about it. Otherwise I’ll delete the account and go with something else - perhaps runkeeper?

I wouldnt look too deeply into it other than just about everything on your phone/PC is interlinked and I personally get through a lot of tin foil

Strava has 3 settings for privacy:

1) Everything you do can be seen by everybody

2) Your activities can only be seen by people you're connected to

3) Top secret cloak and dagger only

In the settings I have CIA level anonymity as my default and I then choose what to share with my followers, if anything
I rarely go for open all areas unless I have drawn a huge cock across the countryside, obvs
If you have similar privacy settings you may come up as a potential contact to your mates but unless you authorise them and then allow them access they wont actually know what you're up to

On the other hand I actually enjoy the banter on Strava
Why not allow some decent pals to follow you and release the occasional run so they can see it, you may find it motivating
I do

Cheers, and good luck with the running

[loudlashadjuster]

bristolbaron said:

*apologies for the non cycling post!*

I’ve recently signed up to Strava as I’ve started C25K. I’ve tried to stay as anonymous as possible as I’m not particularly keen in sharing my 60 second runs.

Despite not giving access to contacts/Facebook/any other third party apps, somehow it’s now found and suggested four of my actual friends to follow! How does it know I know these people? Would I also be coming up as a suggestion for them? Or others?

I’m more annoyed that it’s somehow linking my data than the actual suggestions itself. It would be good to know what the link is so I can do something about it. Otherwise I’ll delete the account and go with something else - perhaps runkeeper?

Your friends have allowed Strava to access their contacts, you can probably guess the rest.

I take it you don't use Facebook, LinkedIn etc. then? They are far worse at the social graphing, shadow accounts etc.

[bristolbaron]

loudlashadjuster said:

Your friends have allowed Strava to access their contacts, you can probably guess the rest.

Ahh.. now that makes perfect sense.

Facebook seems to allow a much higher level of anonymity, however I do have a second account that comes up with similar ‘friend’ suggestions.
LinkedIn is the devils work though!

[yellowjack]

I spotted a post from a 'Strava buddy' this morning. I knew her only as "that cyclist that cruised past me" when I was out on the RideLondon route a couple of years ago (not on the event, but later in the afternoon when the closure was lifted).

Since then we've had a bit of banter now and then, and made positive comments about each other's efforts, the usual stuff.

Then she posts a bike ride with her son which makes reference to her having set a World Record in the W55 masters 800 metres race!
Wowsers!

I think she keeps another account for her running maybe, or just doesn't post that to Strava? Either way, I had no idea about her running at such a high level... https://www.athleticsweekly.com/event-news/virgini...

[lufbramatt]

Wanted to beat one of my mates who was 11th... that one hurt

Lockyers Hill in Kent- 0.3 miles with 200ft of ascent



Have to go back and have a go for the KOM :-)

[yellowjack]

I think i've seen it all now...

Someone I follow joined a new Strava Club... https://www.strava.com/clubs/515870 ...It showed up on my activity feed as 'Strava Bloggers' which sounded like it might be worth a look, at least.

Suspicion was aroused, though, when the front page of the club was nothing but the word " ??????????????" and a link to another site. Now "??????????????" appears to translate to "Great Britain" from Bulgarian. And the site it links you to ( Find your own followers on https://www.stravafans.com/ ) is basically some form of scam that allows you to BUY Strava followers, BUY fully formed Strava clubs with thousands of members, and PAY to promote a Strava club you already own.

Absolutely nuts that some people are, apparently, willing to buy all the things about Strava that matter the least...

"Find Your Strava Fans - More Kudos! More Comments! More Followers! More Friends!" - and more fool you if you fall for this nonsense from some Bulgarian scammer who only wants your bank details...


Best bit was in the "Buy Followers" section...

scam site said:

It will take some time. But the only thing you really need to do is to train and publish amazing content.

Hmmmm? Now you could just not pay, and then train and post amazing content. It would take some time, but you'd grow followers naturally over time. After all, it's one of the reasons we click 'follow' - to see amazing photos and read about what other athletes in far flung places are doing. Or to crib from local athletes near us who know routes, trails, cafe stops and short cuts we don't.


I've also noticed a recent increase in "empty" accounts following me. I don't want to go 'request to follow', but I am puzzled as to why someone would join Strava then click to 'follow' scores of users, yet post nothing on their own account. No pictures, no rides, runs, swims, not even a walk in the park. So I've blocked a fair few new 'followers' for not having any content recently.

I don't think I'm likely to ditch Strava anytime soon, as it is such a good tool for keeping track of my exercise, and obviously for communicating with other riders in the local area. I've gone on to meet a lot of people "in real life" after making first contact through Strava, and found places to ride that it would have taken me years to find by myself. But it's sad to see so many rotten apples bobbing about in the Strava barrel...

Edited by yellowjack on Thursday 19th December 12:20

[Coolbanana]

Wow! That is a new level of desperation!

I only started using Strava in August and it has led me to making some really good friends. I didn't know any local cyclists having only moved here 2 years ago and starting cycling again this year and in 'stealing' KOM's (or chasing Pokémon's as my club mates call it), I was approached to join some locals for a ride and the rest is History; now I'm a member of their race team, have training partners and a regular for the club rides.

I don't have many followers, I don't follow many either - clutters up my feed. I have only a few I am interested in.

[yellowjack]

Coolbanana said:

Wow! That is a new level of desperation!

I only started using Strava in August and it has led me to making some really good friends. I didn't know any local cyclists having only moved here 2 years ago and starting cycling again this year and in 'stealing' KOM's (or chasing Pokémon's as my club mates call it), I was approached to join some locals for a ride and the rest is History; now I'm a member of their race team, have training partners and a regular for the club rides.

I don't have many followers, I don't follow many either - clutters up my feed. I have only a few I am interested in.

The thing is, I looked at the list of members on the Strava page (not the external scam pay-page) and found four sound, sensible, "normal" cyclists who I follow on there. And the comments page is a load of folk introducing themselves to the club, and none of them seem to be nutters. I'm guessing there are many who haven't clicked on that other site where you "buy Strava popularity", but have just accepted it as another genuine Strava club. The club 'owner' has posted one single activity, a 17 mile ride in April this year, just to put a bit of blue in their activity graph, I guess. It all looks pretty suspect to me, though.

I've got far too many things going on in my Strava feed if I'm honest. I've joined too many clubs, I sign up to too many challenges just to collect daft digital badges, and I follow more people than I can keep track of.

I was going to have a clear-out, but I realised that people who no longer post activity aren't cluttering up my feed. Same with clubs. There are only a handful I regularly look at, but occasionally an old comrade will post something of interest, or someone I've not heard from in years will sign up to Strava and we'll get back in touch after spotting one-another on a club leaderboard or something. So I leave it cluttered. Although there are some clubs I've not even dipped into for several years so I guess I should really prune that side of things quite drastically.

But I suppose that's my point regarding "buying popularity". If you use it regularly, and engage with other users, then I think your Strava feed grows organically. There is no need to buy a bunch of empty followers to artificially boost things. I started using Strava in October 2012, with just a few manual entries copied across from my cycling diary, using numbers from my 'dumb' Cateye bike computer. I bought a second hand Garmin a year later, posting my first GPS trace on 02 October 2013 to zero "kudos" and a single comment from another PHer who I think had seen my posts about buying the Garmin in these pages, rather than finding me through Strava. Now I regularly get over 100 people clicking to give me "kudos", and at least half my rides draw some comment or other. These things are not important per se, but communicating with people who love to ride as much as I do does somewhat enrich the Strava experience. I just can't imagine how hollow it would feel to measure your popularity with "likes", having bought them from some dodgy Bulgarian who based their club in the UK, yet according to their athlete profile appears to be an attractive American lady form "PRETTY PRAIRE" (?prairie?), Kansas.

Anyway. I've rambled on too much on this subject. People will start thinking I've got a bee in my bonnet about it. I'm off to stare out of the kitchen window. I'm going to pray that this rain eventually stops at some point, while wondering how it is that Carol bloomin' Kirkwood and the BBC Weather Centre could manage to get today's forecast so drastically wrong!

Edited by yellowjack on Thursday 19th December 13:06